Dear Friends of German Comedy,
First things first: Otto Kuhnle and I will be performing A Beginner’s Guide to German Humour at The Questors Theatre in Ealing from April 21-26. More details and a few show snippets below.
But our theatre run is far from the only reason I am very much looking forward to April. Germany celebrates the third anniversary of Pope Benedikt XVI’s papacy. In the unlikely event that our man in Rome reads this bulletin: Well done Joseph for being such a great credit to the Fatherland!
Now to the mere mortals: Steve Harmison banked nearly a quarter of a million from the England and Wales Cricket Board for just 7 lacklustre Test match performances. This still sounds far less outrageous than the 4,000 dollars per hour that hooker Ashley Dupre charged New York governor Eliot Spitzer for her services.
I know the dollar isn’t what it used to be and I am certainly not in a position to judge her performance but how good at sex can she possibly be? Never mind moral standards; Spitzer had to step down for lacking sound financial judgement.
Did anybody else not understand the hysterical reactions to the 6% hike in alcohol duty? The move adds less than 10 pence to the price of a pint. Anybody seriously financially affected by such an increase should question their alcohol intake. Chancellor Alistair Darling’s budget seems to be the least of their problems.
Tory Councillor Eshaq Khan was expelled from the Conservative Party after being found guilty of entering hundreds of false names on to the electoral register in Slough. This brings me to the safe return of Shannon Matthews, the 9-year-old girl who was abducted by her stepfather’s uncle.
It took the police more than three weeks to find her as they weren’t able to make efficient use of the sex offender’s register as it listed more than 1,400 offenders in a 25-mile radius round her home in Dewsbury.
Either West Yorkshire is full of perverts or police add citizens to the register willy-nilly. Ruling out the former it might be a good idea to replace the electoral role with the sex offender’s register, which before long will be Britain’s most accurate citizen database.
Have a great month and God save Pope Benedikt XVI.!
Henning
